With You By My Side
by autumn midnights
Summary: The three-year anniversary of Scorpius Malfoy and Dominique Weasley was supposed to be a perfect night. Things didn't exactly turn out as planned. Established!ScorpiusDominique. Rated T for language and torture.


_Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Harry Potter._

_Author's Note: Written for tunystark, courtesy of the Gift-Giving Extravaganza 2013. Sorry this is late, and I hope you like it!_

_Also, to other readers, I just want to say that this story does not fit in my general headcanon, and does not take place in the timeline of my usual fics. In this story, Dominique is the same age as Scorpius (meaning she was a first year in the DH epilogue). Both Dominique and Scorpius are in their early twenties in this fic._

_I'm almost entirely sure that this plot bunny popped into my head because I've been watching too many crime shows. I'm also almost entirely sure that I had way too much fun writing this._

_And now, I'm officially done GGE 2013! In March of 2014. Go me. _

* * *

Our three-year anniversary started out as a perfectly normal day.

When I woke up, Dominique was already gone. Her job as an Auror meant that she was out of the house sometime between seven and eight o'clock; since I didn't have a job, typical lazy rich boy that I was, I almost always slept in until at least eleven in the morning. After Hogwarts, I had pretty much sworn off of waking up early. It wasn't going to happen again for me - at least not until I had kids who decided to climb on me at five in the morning.

That day, though, I woke up earlier than usual - at around nine-thirty. For a second, I lay there on the bed, confused as hell about why I had woken up an hour and a half earlier than I normally did. The ignorance didn't last long, though - I quickly remembered everything, all at once.

Our anniversary was today. Dominique and I had been together for three years. We had reservations at Ackerley's, a fancy restaurant that had just opened up in Diagon Alley, for supper.

I planned to propose.

The thought of spending the rest of my life with Dominique was a wonderful one. The thought of actually proposing...not so much.

I could be smooth - before Dominique, I had gone through roughly ten girls in six months, almost all of whom I had chatted up. When I was with Dominique, though, that facade of charm wasn't as easy to maintain. I was _real _with Dominique, which made the idea of proposing so much more difficult. I couldn't just put an act and perform, be the overconfident bastard that I sometimes pretended to be. I had to tell her how I honestly felt, and it terrified me.

Forcing myself to get out of bed and be at least somewhat productive wasn't easy, even though my definition of 'somewhat productive' only meant getting dressed and making myself coffee and food. I sat at the table, drinking coffee and eating toast while feeling ridiculously panicky.

If it had been a weekend, I would have tried to get together with a friend or two so that I could talk about the proposal or get my mind off of it. Sadly, it was a Thursday, and all of my friends had jobs. I didn't have anyone I could talk to, and Merlin, it sucked.

I cleaned up and finished breakfast, and then went back up to the bedroom, wondering if I should pop over to Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade and do some shopping - at least it would take my mind off of things. I couldn't actually think of anything that I wanted or needed, though, and Dominique hadn't mentioned anything, either. I would have even gone for some groceries, but no, we had gone two nights ago and stocked up on everything. Damn preparedness and organization.

It looked beautiful outside - it was late May, and there was just enough of a breeze to sway the trees in our backyard. I opened the window and stuck my head and upper body out, letting the gentle air wash over me. The day we had started dating hadn't been such a beautiful day - I could remember it clearly.

We had known each other vaguely from school - she was in my year, except she was Ravenclaw and I was Slytherin - but we had never really talked until that May twenty-fifth, three years ago. I was still living with my parents in Malfoy Manor at that point, and the house was broken into while I was there. As a result, I had to spend a ridiculous amount of time at the Auror Office for the next week. Dominique wasn't working the investigation, but she was having a slow week of her own, and so she talked to me when she could spare a few minutes.

When the investigation closed, I asked her out to Hogsmeade. She said yes, and we met up the following night - which just happened to be the night of an enormous rainstorm. We were stuck inside the Three Broomsticks for three hours as the rain pounded down outside. We stayed there talking even after it stopped, even when we could have been going to different stores and looking around.

Pretty sure I fell in love that night.

I probably stayed dangling out the window like an idiot for a few minutes, thinking back to that first date with Dominique. For the past two anniversaries, we had gone back to the Three Broomsticks, but I had suggested Ackerley's this year; there was no way I could propose at the Three Broomsticks. Even though it had romantic significance, it was still overly casual and loud. It just wasn't the right atmosphere for a proposal.

Extracting myself from the window, I turned around - only to see a large, bearded man, who was pointing a wand right at my face.

"_Stupefy!"_

o0o0o0o

My first thought upon waking up was that I needed to start actually keeping my wand on my person at all times, like Dominique always told me to.

My second thought was that I was completely and utterly screwed.

I opened my eyes and looked around. I was in a small, dank room; it would have been completely dark if it weren't for a light up near the ceiling. There were no windows, although there was a solid-looking door. I was tied to a chair with rope that I didn't stand a chance of breaking. Another chair, this one empty, was a couple of feet away from me.

I tried to stand up, hoping that maybe I could get out of here, even if it involved walking out with the chair still tied to me and looking like an idiot. No such luck. The chair was stuck to the ground, with no give whatsoever. And I was stuck to the chair, thanks to someone's freakishly good knotting skills, so I wasn't going anywhere.

As I said. Completely and utterly screwed.

I couldn't help but wonder why I was actually here. My first thought was that it had something to do with money - my parents were filthy rich, and I was by extension. Anybody would love to get their hands on some of the Malfoy and Greengrass fortunes. Maybe I was bait.

The idea of being bait cheered me up just a little bit, actually, because being the bait kind of required that I had to remain alive, and remaining alive was definitely preferred. I had no idea how long I'd been unconscious; I sincerely hoped it hadn't been too many minutes or hours. Dominique told me that the chance of survival decreased drastically after the first forty-eight hours.

There were some bad things about having an Auror as a girlfriend. Namely, that she told me so many tidbits over the years from her job, and at that moment, my mind decided to go over every single one of them. I felt sick at the thought of being mutilated and murdered like some of the victims Dominique had mentioned or the _Daily Prophet _had ran a story on. Oh, Merlin, why did I even have to think like that?

The door opened. For half a second, I thought it was the Aurors, coming to save me - that they had found me somehow, and now everything was going to be fine. I could only imagine now bragging to Lily that I had been kidnapped, but I had been able to stroll out of the building unharmed, that I didn't even need to go to St. Mungo's...

Needless to say, it wasn't the Aurors.

Mr. Large-and-Bearded stepped through the doorway, this time with a thin but tall bloke who was dragging a limp female figure. They shoved her into the other chair, and the skinny one started tying her up in the same way that I was tied. The girl's head lolled a bit, and my heart sank in my stomach.

It was Dominique.

I launched into a tirade of curses. I didn't even pay attention to what was coming out of my mouth, which was probably a good thing - if I had realized at the time that I called two blokes 'shitty piece-of-shit shitheads', I probably would have felt ridiculous. Neither one of them really reacted to my barrage of swears. By the time I was finished cussing them out, Dominique was stirring and The Skinny One had finished tying her up.

Dominique's eyes opened, and she looked around, taking everything in the same way I had. When her eyes alighted on me, she let her head fall back slightly, and she murmured, "Oh, Merlin, no." Her gaze snapped back to the two kidnappers, and she spoke. "He has nothing to do with this," Dominique said. She managed to sound strong and clear. If I had been in her shoes, I would have sounded like a blubbering idiot. "It's me you want. Let him go - he doesn't know you."

"Or you could let us both go," I said hopefully. I didn't want to be trapped here, but I didn't want Dominique in their clutches either. Truthfully, she could probably handle herself better than I could - a trained Auror versus someone who's never even been in a duel? No question about it - but that didn't mean I wanted to have her go through that.

"Nice try, kid," Mr. Large-and-Bearded said. He stood a couple feet in front of Dominique. "Tell me, _Auror__, _what do you have on Franklin Runcorn?"

Dominique raised her eyebrows. "I'm not authorized to discuss any ongoing Auror investigations with civilians," she said coolly. "Look. If you let us go right now, and you cooperate, I can get your sentence reduced to ten years in prison. You haven't done any real harm yet, and you haven't kept us very long. You're not looking at a very long term right now. _Keep it that way_."

The Skinny One slapped her across the face. I winced and called him a bastard, but he paid no mind to me. "Leroy asked you a question."

"I got kidnapped by someone named _Leroy_?" I asked myself.

Too late, I realized I had said that out loud.

Dominique looked at me with a facial expression that equated to 'You're an idiot'. I was so busy looking at her that I missed a large hand - a hand belonging to Leroy The Large - coming down across my cheek. My head snapped back with the force of his slap. I gritted my teeth so that I didn't say anything, but _shit__, _that hurt.

The Skinny One looked pissed off that I had dared to interrupt his interrogation of my girlfriend, but he didn't say anything to me. "Franklin Runcorn," he repeated to Dominique. "What's he being invi - investi..." The Skinny One looked unsure of how to finish the word 'investigation'. "Why're the Aurors looking at him?"

"You don't know?" Dominique _tsk_ed. "Your own cousin doesn't tell you what he's been up to? Shame."

"You know him?" I asked Dominique, nodding at The Skinny One.

"He was brought in for questioning a couple of weeks ago," she said neutrally, "because of the actions of his cousin, Franklin Runcorn. Of course, we used him as more of a character witness than anything else. We were never clear with him why exactly we were looking into Runcorn." She looked back at The Skinny One. "I told _Leroy _over there, and I'll tell you. I'm not authorized to discuss Auror investigations with civilians unless I have clearance from my supervisors. And since I don't have that, I will not tell you anything."

"Hmm." Leroy stood barely a foot in front of me, pointing his wand at my heart. "We'll see about that."

"If you kill him," Dominique said, "I guarantee that I won't tell you a single thing. You're intelligent enough to know that, aren't you, Leroy? I know you're not stupid. I know you're smarter than him." She nodded at The Skinny One. "He roped you into this, didn't he? He wanted to do this, but it was you who actually executed this. Am I right?"

"Yeah," Leroy said. "It was his idea. But if you're aiming to get in between us or something - drive a wedge or whatever the hell you people are calling it now - it's not going to work." He nodded at me. "I suggest you start telling Ken what he wants to know, or your boyfriend gets it."

"I'm not talking if you kill him," Dominique repeated.

Leroy's face twisted slightly into what I guess was a grin. I really didn't like seeing that psycho grin on the face of someone who was pointing a wand at me. I mouthed 'Help me' to Dominique, but she was looking back and forth between the two criminals, sizing them up. I had no idea what she was trying to think of; I knew from my own bindings that she had no hope of escape on her own.

"Who said anything about killing him?" Leroy said. "_Crucio!"_

My head snapped back and hit the chair, but I barely even felt that pain because the rest of me was on fire. I had lived a safe, spoiled life; I wasn't used to minor pain, much less something like this. The Cruciatus Curse was hell for anybody, but having a completely shit pain tolerance just made it worse. I was screaming like a little girl, begging for him to _stop, please, enough, just make it stop_.

"Stop it!" Dominique's voice rang out, mixing with my own sobs. "Don't hurt him, please! For the love of Merlin, hurt me instead, I can take it-"

Leroy held the curse just a little longer, probably to prove that he was in control or some crap like that. When he finally released me, I gasped for breath, panting, trying to stop myself from crying. Leroy raised his eyebrows. "Now are you willing to talk?"

The Skinny One - Ken, whatever - came over to me as well, and he jabbed his wand in my direction as well, coming dangerously close to my eye as he waved it around like an idiot. "Maybe if we Cruciate him at the same time, she'll say something," he said.

"Please, no." I kept begging, half-incoherently, unable to even imagine the combined effect of two simultaneous Crucios. One had been bad enough. I'd probably pass out with two - which would probably be a good thing.

"_Cru-"_

"Don't!" Dominique screamed, interrupting Leroy's incantation. More calmly, she continued, "I'll talk - just don't hurt him any more."

That got both Leroy and Ken's attention, and their heads snapped over in her direction. "Tell us," Ken said.

"Runcorn's wand was found next to a dead body," she said. "The last spell performed with it was the Killing Curse. A couple Aurors went to his house to talk to him, but he was nowhere to be found, and nobody that knew him said that he had any plans of going away. The timing is just too coincidental, so it's really important that we find him - he might be the killer, or he might even be a victim."

I had no idea whether she was telling the truth or not - she only discussed completely-closed cases with me. Not to mention, Auror training had made her far too good a liar. For all I knew, she could be completely bullshitting them. In fact, it was probably more likely. I knew Dominique loved me, but first and foremost, she was an Auror. She knew how to handle herself, she knew not to give out case information, and there was no way in hell she'd break down after I had only experienced a couple minutes' worth of torture.

I would have. But she was made of stronger stuff than me.

Leroy and Ken kept exchanging looks, as though they had no idea whether or not she was telling the truth, too. That probably wasn't a good thing, since they both still had their wands pointed in my general direction. I really wanted them to point them somewhere else (at each other would have been convenient).

"Er," Ken stage-whispered, "what do we do now?"

"We're getting another Auror," Leroy said. "We'll see if their stories match up. You stay here and guard these two - I don't trust the girl. Be back in a little while."

Oh Merlin, he really was smart. Seeing if another Auror told the same story as Dominique was brilliant. Kidnapping an Auror was probably easier said than done, of course; I could only hope that he would get himself caught. He left, slamming the door shut behind him. I exchanged a look with Dominique, and her eyes softened. "I'm so sorry, Scorpius," she said quietly. "I'm sorry you got involved in all of this."

I lowered my voice to a whisper. "Do you think we're going to die?"

Dominique looked down. "I have no idea."

"Er..." I took a deep breath, and I forced myself to continue. If we did die, I wanted Dominique to go knowing how much I had loved her. "I love you. More than I can really describe, to be honest. I'm so in love with you, and I plan to spend the rest of my life - however short that might be, I guess - with you by my side, if you'll have me. Dominique...I was going to propose tonight."

A tear slipped down her face. I couldn't even begin to describe her expression; so many emotions were mixed in all together. "I love you too," she said quietly, "and I want to spend the rest of my life with you too. If we get out of here, I'll marry you." She leaned her head over as much as she could, trying to get as close to me as possible. "This is me saying 'yes'."

I was probably about to cry too, but Ken irritably stepped right in the middle of our chairs. "Oi, shut it, lovebirds," he said. I was surprised he had let us get that much out before interfering. Maybe he was just curious to see whether Dominique would accept my sort-of proposal or not. "Auror," he said, "you said my cousin's missing. You got any leads?"

"No," Dominique said.

He spun and pointed the wand at my heart again. "What was that, girl? Might want to say somethin' else..."

She shook her head, a couple tear tracks still visible on her face. My eyes closed automatically as I was again hit with the Cruciatus, and I could again hear Dominique's pleading mixing in with my own. "I swear to you, there's no leads! Stop, oh Merlin, I promise that we don't know where he is, I promise, I promise, just stop hurting him-"

My mind was hazy. I couldn't think straight - all I knew was the agony currently consuming me. I tried to focus on Dominique's voice, hoping that maybe my sanity would remain if I had something to hold onto. Maybe it worked, or maybe I just hadn't been under the curse long enough; when Ken finally stopped the torture, after a much longer session than the previous, I was still sane. In pain and feeling like shit, but sane.

"Dominique," I murmured.

"I wish I could save you from this," she said, and her voice cracked slightly. "I hate that I can't." I opened my eyes a crack and saw her glaring up at Ken. "Stop hurting him," she said, the command clear in her voice. "Go ahead, curse me, but leave him alone."

"Huh," Ken said. "Okay. _Crucio!_"

Dominique was less vocal than I was - trained Auror and all that, I suppose - but even she couldn't stay completely silent, and hearing her in pain was as bad as being tortured myself. I squeezed my eyes shut; I couldn't bear to see it, too. I was well aware that I was crying, but I had completely bypassed the point of giving a shit about appearances. He was torturing the girl who was, to use a cliche, the love of my life.

"You bastard! Stop hurting her!" I tried to strain against the ropes, as if that would break them, but it was useless. If Dominique couldn't get out, than I certainly couldn't.

He kept going a little while longer before giving me another dose of the curse, asking Dominique something else about Runcorn that I didn't even hear. He had just started in on her again when the door slammed open, and five Aurors poured through, wands out. "Put your wand down!" shouted one of them. "Now! You're under arrest!"

Ken dropped his wand onto the ground; it shot off a few sparks upon hitting the floor. He stood there dumbly as two of the Aurors restrained him and took him out; two others untied Dominique and I. The Auror who untied me - a curly-haired older woman I vaguely remembered seeing - tried to help me up out of the chair, but I couldn't stand up straight at all. I fell against her, unable to hold myself up. Dominique was standing, with the help of the other Auror, but I could tell by her face and her posture that she wasn't doing so well, either.

"We're taking them to St. Mungo's," the Auror who untied me said. I don't remember what happened next except that I passed out, the stress and the pain finally catching up to me.

o0o0o0o

I woke up in a bed feeling like a giant had sat on me. Every part of my body ached, since apparently the aftereffects of the Cruciatus didn't go away very quickly. I wouldn't have minded sinking back into unconsciousness, but I was pretty sure it would be difficult to make myself black out again. I opened my eyes. Dominique was curled up in a large, comfortable-looking chair right beside my bed.

"Why aren't you in a bed?" I mumbled. It was a miracle that she actually heard me.

"Because I didn't pass out," she said. "They gave me a Pain-killing Potion, but they didn't technically have grounds to force me to remain in bed." She shrugged, and then winced. "Damn, they need to make that potion stronger. Works wonders for a sprained muscle or something like that, but it doesn't really get rid of something this strong." She nodded at the table by my bed. "They left some for you, too."

I gulped down the entire potion. Hopefully I was supposed to. Dominique didn't stop me, though, so I assumed it was all right. She was correct; it didn't do too much to help. A little of the edge was taken off, but the pain was still there. I did my best to ignore it. "You all right?" I asked Dominique.

"I'm...no. I'm not all right," she said. "I was so scared that we wouldn't get out of there. That you wouldn't get out of there. And I couldn't deal with seeing you hurt. I can deal with pain - would have flunked out of Auror training if I couldn't take anything. But seeing them torture you? That was worse. Damn them both. I'm so sorry you got involved in all of this." She slowly pushed herself out of her chair and slid into the hospital bed next to me. Her feet brushed against mine, and her head was leaning against mine; Dominique was one inch taller than I was. "I wish they had only taken me."

"I'll be fine," I said, trying to sound extremely confident. I knew that I was telling the truth. It was just hard to talk about being okay when I could still feel fire racing through my body.

"I know. I just wish you didn't have to go through that." She sighed, draping an arm across my chest. "I love you too much to see you hurt."

I managed to extract my arm from underneath her and put it around her, drawing her even closer. I could feel the wiry muscles of her back through her robes, and I rubbed her back and shoulders in gentle circles in an attempt to be soothing. "I love you too," I said. "We'll get through this." I met her gaze. "Remember what I said in there? About loving you for the rest of my life and wanting to marry you?"

"I could never forget," she said sincerely.

"Hold on to that," I said. "As soon as we get out of here, we'll have that dinner at Ackerley's, and I'll put that ring on your finger."

A little smile crossed her face. "Good," she said. "I said I'd marry you if we got out." She brushed my lips with hers. "I intend to keep that promise."

"Can't wait." I couldn't stop myself from smiling when I looked at her. Even after going through hell, she looked stunning. I was incredibly lucky to have her - this beautiful woman, this badass Auror, this amazing girlfriend - by my side.

Maybe we'd never be entirely normal. Maybe we'd still have nightmares about this in five years. Maybe we'd spend the rest of our lives looking over our shoulders, terrified of something like this happening again.

All I knew was that if we were together, we would be all right.


End file.
